It's Tuna Noodle Casserole Week on Robyn's blog. Today -- 'making friends' with TNC variation.
Wow, did this bring back memories of children and friends in a small kitchen in the Pacific Northwest.
Mine started out with homemade macaroni and cheese. I can still see it smell it and almost taste it. Sizzling butter in a pan...blended with flour for a 'roux'...adding the milk, waiting for it to slightly thicken and then adding the piece d' resistance, grated Tillamook cheese (we were on 'WIC' in those days, and this exceptional cheese was on the list, i.e., free)...blending and cooking to make a sauce for elbow macaroni (how plebian!).
One day, I had some tuna & mayo, leftover from sandwiches. I dumped that in to the mac'n'cheese mosh pit (I've always used that term inappropriately. Just ask a certain choir). Then I would add frozen peas. Not sure where that came from. Hmmm...I'm channeling some kind of remembrance from my childhood -- ah, creamed tuna on toast. Well, maybe that included peas. But I doubt it. The peas are undoubtedly random.
I remember rather clearly a day with my young children and a few friends with their children. They requested the gourmet home made mac'n'cheese (though at that age, my kids begged for Kraft...). And when I made it without tuna and peas, they were taken aback and insisted I 'make it the right way'.
That was an eye opener. I never thought of it as anything but 'the kitchen sink' and really couldn't believe they craved the concoction.
Ah, the flavors of the past beckon. I could go on...with homemade custard (made with honey) - oh so good, still warm from the oven... mashed avocado on buttered whole wheat toast with grated onion and salt on top... fried egg sandwiches topped with red onions sauteed in butter, with one piece of bread heavily buttered and the other heavily mayo'd...
In this pre-Thanksgiving week, it's easy to crave the poison 'comfort' food one grows up with. But -- more about poisons mom fed us, later.
OMG. Cooks.com has an actual recipe for tuna and peas on toast.
5 comments:
I was just telling someone about your mac & cheese! Legendary! I remember asking you what was in it years ago, and you asked me, "Do you really want to know?"
...I noticed that someone is now" bearing all "in her profile... your TNC sounds good, and I've never "appreciated" TNC...my mom made mac and cheese as you described...our family traditions included cole slaw with turkey dinner[think KFC : chicken & slaw...] I think it was a Southern influence...so when I make turkey sandwitches ,"after", they include buttered toast[dense grainy bread...],sometimes mayo, always white meat, the gloppy dressing cooked in the turkey,slaw and sometimes, cranberry sauce...eating it is messy, but, oh, so wonderful...
Ah, MVBF, now the truth is out: mayo is the secret ingredient! After the first experiment was a success - with leftover tuna/mayo, I had to repeat/relive it with precision... and thus always began as if to make tuna sandwiches, then taking a detour to the pot on the stove.
CS, TBTG for Southern-influenced cooking! RIch, often messy, and always supported with butter...!
P.S. I've chickened out and have returned as a child.
"Kitchen sink" is the perfect phrase for it. I like the sound of a fried egg sandwich with sauteed red onions and mayo. Yum. that isn't food from my childhood, but it is food from my college days.
...DD, I noticed the "re-incarnation" and chalked it up to that "Midwestern" wholesomeness gaining influence over the "evil" CA ways...BTW...if you have not noticed, I have been "composing" again..."Cat-mas carols"...there are 8 at last count...they just "come" to me[undoubtedly the "evil"CA influence...] and as much as it embarrasses me to say it, I re-read them and howl, as if someone else wrote them...sad, sad, sad...but funny...
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